Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-28

else. opera has It's own HDaiClai ISeults
which are accomplished under entirely
different conditions than those winch OBJ
tain at theater and law unto them
selves. Patti has frequently played 10
| $40, 600 and even $4,000 IN o0e perform
apce under Mapleson's skillful manage
mens, and Nilsson and Gerster have at
tracted CROWDS whose pecuniary sigultic-
ence was almost as great, but in these Ca
seS society took hand, fashion put It's
stamp OF approval on the proceedings,
and under these lpfiueI ces money was
poured out without any stint. Fashion
has nothing to &c with the thester as @
general rule, and theatrical entertain
ments stand on their meIits and their
power TO excite or stimulate public curl
osity. How large these receipts OF ope
ratio stars, however, really are may be eS-
: timated when il is remembered that
PATHS receipts of $4,000 or S12,o 900 Tor
q single night are larger than what so
successful g theatrical star as Mrs. Lang
| try plays to IN ca entire week. H.
deed, if Mrs. LangtFy plays TO an aversge
OF $4,000 tue season through she is thOr-
oughly well satisfied. Comparing PATHS
receipts again with more ordinary that
real sttrsctions, it may be pointed out
that the $4,000 which she draws at one
performance would pay the expenses OF
eVan SO elaborate production as "TDe
C0rseir" at the Bliou opera house for an
| entire month and leave the msnsgers Of
that dazzling tpsctecular production
margin Of prUfis.
| TIE theatrical manager probably more
than anybody else in this wide world, be-
lieves in the axiom that nothing succeeds
| like success. He is great deal more
anxious TO impress the public with be-
| lief that his toeater is crowded nightly
and that the money he is taking in 81 the
box flee is very large than TO convince
taem # the merit Of the attraction ne is
presenting or the artistic worth of any OF
it's numerous features. He talks ABOUT
receipts, he argues receipts, ne Jnggles
receipts, he dreams about receipts,
and, with few honorable ex-
Csptions, he lies about receipts
| EXaggeration in this direction always
seems TO De in order. The interior OF the
! box-l fiji e is CT course q mystery. What
goes on within those narrow limits the
public Of course knows nothing about. In
facr, people IN the profession with all
| their experience and all their means OF
calculating how much money may be in a
given house on q specific evening are un-
able to arrive at satisfactory results. The
secrets Of the box office are s. Crets TO
them as well as to anybody else. This
being the case, the manager who is inter-
ested in securing the appearance OF sue
cess can talk ebOut his receipts with COM
parstive safety, and he always does It.
BUFFALO BILLS SUCCESS.
| Marvellous stories nave Come over here
recently respecting the money which Buf
falO Bill has made in London, and cor
respondents OF people connected with
THAI enterprise 10 The number OF at least
half dozen agree in masking what seems
TO be the exceedingly absurd assertion
that the receipts for the opening exhibi-
ton in LoDdon for the Wild West show
reached shout E35 900 This is, of
course, $l75, 900, ahd Sl75,0 would be
ss much as Mr.. Irving would draw TO
his performances during TWO such en-
gagements IS be is now playing in New
York of five weeks each; and yet this
statement that Buffalo Bill will attract as
much in one evening as the production of
Faust" will in ten weeks is made with
every appearance of sincerity. 1t Is true
that we nave no lame date means OF dis
proving the assertion, and it may be true,
but, as the little sounreGte says in her top
licsl song, "we doubt it," When there
is no opportunity to check off the mana
ger il his box-l "a &c STATE meGts, it is
natural that they should reach marvellous
and rainbow-like proportions, but
even when the means to do SO
are with US, the audacious Imagination
of the manager is seldom cutbed or
| nampered. The auction sale of seats for
Mrs. Potter's opening night is case in
point. The people who assembled to see
| RI
more properly, or hear him knock down
the seats, were presumably all srishmeti
clans to a more or less degree, and they,
| if they had so chosen, could easily have
calculated at the end OF the sale exactly
what the financial outcome was. A great
many spectators, newspaper men and
rneatrical managers of Mr.. Miner did go
choose, and they were able, of course, to
arrive at al @ y )Xims telY correct result.
They said that the sale had brought
in about $4,000, providing that
all the sales were bons fde, whit b
taey appeared TO be. But in the face of
al these figures which couldn't and
didn't lie, Mr. Miners representative
aid, after everything was over, thai be
had not made any additions, but he be-
neved that the sale would turn in about
SI2 600 TO the treasury. The mania for
exaggeIating the receipts is so we'll rec g
nized by theatrical managers thu mselves,
and those who come into contact with
them, that when anybody about to an
nouDce fgures wants TO be peculiarly i'm
pressive, he always pulls out a notebook,
in which the figures Of course purport so
he ofici Il and 10 be transcribed directly
from the books Of the theatrical
business man or firm whose enterprise is
under discussion. Barley Campbell al
WAYS carried around with him q book of
this kind which he would take from his
| side pocket on the smallest provocatioD
and snow how "Siberia" had p!ayed to
$3.50 in Cincinnati and $1,000 for single
night at Elizabeth. This device OF
carving around a note book and
displaying it's contents assumed to
be private was an ingenious one,
aud certainly did give an air of
Importance and OF truthfulness to state
me ats that uttered merely by WORD
f mouth would have been entirely disre-
garded, but lurking suspicion grew rap
d Y among those who were favored with
| me Sc exhibitions that the little accounts
| an rnada known were cooked nm and ar